FAQs

For many reasons. Cypress is well known for its resistance to insects, rot and decay. Its color consistency and relative lack of knots are distinctive characteristics which make cypress an excellent choice for outdoor furniture. It glues well, sands easily and readily accepts finishes.

The only downside to cypress is that since we began building furniture 20 years ago, cypress has nearly tripled in price!

Speaking of high prices, that's the reason teak is impossible to use in stateside furniture production. As of early 2021, the price of teak is about $25 per board foot. A board foot is a 12” square of wood, one inch thick. Even our smallest piece of furniture use 3-5 board feet of lumber. Larger pieces can use 10-15 board feet. That means that even for the smallest piece we make, we would have to pay $75-$125 in material before making the first cut!

We'll never sell plastic furniture. The environmental disaster that plastic has created is familiar to everyone so we try to reduce its use in our homelife and in the shop.

Many of our products are delivered to you in a partially assembled state which allows us to ship these items more economically. Assembly instructions are always included. All that's required of you is a little time (typically 10-30 minutes) and a square-drive screwdriver. Of course, we'll be happy to assist you with any assembly questions. Just email us or give us a call.

Most orders ship within 3-5 weeks of receipt, depending on the size of the order and time of year. Call us before you order if you want a better sense of lead time. Delivery time via FedEx Ground/Home Delivery service is about 2-5 business days depending on your location. If we anticipate a delay, we’ll let you know.

Wood is made mostly of cellulose and lignin. Cellulose is fibrous and gives wood its strength. Lignin is a kind of natural glue that holds the fibrous stuff together. Wood has enemies, mainly bugs, water and sunlight. Bugs eat wood. Ultraviolet (UV) light changes the lignin molecule in wood so that it loses its adhesive properties. The lignin leeches out of the wood, leaving a rough, fibrous gray surface. If you apply a finish to the wood–a stain or sealer or paint–you can slow the process down and help your furniture last longer.

Of any exterior finish, paint offers the best form of protection, but it’s the most difficult to maintain. Paint will eventually peel and will be more unsightly over time than a wipe-on finish like a sealer or a colored stain. In fact, most outdoor finishes will only last 1-3 years before they need to be renewed. That takes a commitment on your part to periodically protect your furniture.

Regardless of the finish you choose, you should wipe off dirt or grass clippings and wash your furniture periodically with mild soap and water. Application of a sealer or stain every few years will continue to protect the wood.

Important: Do not leave chair or table legs in contact with the ground for extended periods of time. This is a prescription for rot. Your furniture will last much longer if it rests on bricks or concrete or flagstone–any kind of hard surface that doesn’t retain moisture and harbor insects.

If you don’t intend to renew the finish on your outdoor furniture, the wood will turn a silvery gray color and last for many years with periodic cleaning and by keeping it off bare ground.

Yes. Just call or email us with your request. We’ll review it and determine if customization is feasible. Please be aware that custom pieces are usually more expensive because they require additional time to design and build.

Sure. We enjoy getting suggestions from our customers. If you would like to see a certain product in our shop, just call or email and we’ll give it prompt consideration and let you know what we can do.

Only for two or more of the Omni Pagoda stands since the stand is designed to work in combination with other variations of the stand. Each piece of Fatpatio furniture is priced to give you a great value and provide us a living wage. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to ship outside the 48 contiguous states. 

Yes it is. See The Fatpatio Guarantee for details.

No we don't. You can see lots of photos of our furniture in various stages of construction on Instagram or Pinterest. If you're ever near Winston-Salem, feel free to stop by the shop. Just give call us first to make sure we're available.

Knots, checks, and other small blemishes do not affect the structural integrity or durability of your furniture. They’re part of the normal lifecycle of wood.

All our furniture is shipped unfinished. While applying finish will enhance the beauty of the piece and provide additional protection from UV light and weather, it increases the cost and can add another week to build time as we have to wait for the finish to dry between coats.

Over the years, we accumulated lots of low resolution iPhone photos of our products. They aren't useable on the new website. We'll be adding high res product photography to our site as soon as we can, but we wanted to launch now and add the photos later this year. In the meantime, you'll find older photos on our Instagram and Pinterest accounts which we update regularly.